Compound archery bows are very popular for hunting and target shooting. These bows use a bowstring stretched between one or more pulleys and/or cams. There are a variety of orientations of bowstrings, cams/pulleys, and (on some bows) cables, of which one or more types of bows is discussed herein as an example.
Maintaining a drawn bow string can tire an archer quickly, and a tired archer is less likely to be able to continue to effectively hold a drawn bowstring and/or is less likely to be able to continue to shoot a bow effectively. For example, if an archer is hunting and hears game approaching, the archer may want to or need to hold a bowstring in the drawn position for several minutes, before the hunted game enters a distance at which the archer can effectively place an arrow into the vital organs of the game. For some archers the draw weight of a bow string is only 15-20 pounds, but for more advanced archers, a draw weight of a bowstring may be set to as high as 60 to 80 pounds. A higher draw weight corresponds with a bow's ability to shoot an arrow farther, with less drop, and with more speed. However, some archers sacrifice higher draw weights (and the corresponding benefits) in place of draw weights that the archers can hold for longer periods of time, even though the archers are fully capable of drawing higher draw weights.